Why is There No AIDS Vaccine?: A new economic explanation

Pedro Rey Biel

Published: December 2001

This paper provides an economic explanation for the non-existence of a vaccine against AIDS. It comments on previously claimed economic reasons why private laboratories do not have incentives to invest in an AIDS vaccine and provides a new one: private companies already operate in the market for treatment of already infected patients, which market is threatened by the eventual emergence of a vaccine that cuts the cycle of infection. Finally, the paper discusses some mechanisms to provide incentives for further private research in diseases where a treatment product already exists.

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